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Three-fourths of the sky

CYNTHIA CHOO

Ashna Acharya is in the cockpit of a Buddha Air ATR 42, and ready for take off.

Every day should be International Women’s Day in Nepal, not just 8 March because there is much left to do for gender parity. Of the two dozen ministers in the coalition cabinet only two are women. Only about 15 per cent of the teachers in Nepal’s high schools are female. At last count, just 13 per cent of the membership of the Federation of Nepalese Journalists were women. But the most glaring example of structural gender exclusion is the refusal of some lawmakers to allow citizenship in the name of the mother.